Coloreel and Ricoh claim textile colouring tech revolution

Japanese tech giant Ricoh has entered a long-term partnership with Sweden’s Coloreel which the two companies claim should “revolutionise the textile industry with thread colouring innovation.”

The two companies are claiming they can revolutionise colour textile technology Coloreel and the global electronics giant say that have created “a groundbreaking” thread colouring unit for the textile industry which is based on Ricoh’s inkjet printing technology and Coloreel’s technology for colorisation.

The two have been working together for several years but have only now signed the final contracts for the partnership that will directly impact the embroidery industry.

The development has been taking place in Japan, England and Sweden.

So what is the technology all about? The company says that it enables "high-quality instant colouring of textile thread while it is in the textile production.”

The first product to be launched based on this tech is a thread colouring unit that works with any existing industrial embroidery machine. By instantly colouring a white base thread during embroidery production, “Coloreel enables complete freedom to create unique embroideries without any limitations in the use of colours,” we’re told.

Coloreel will start production this autumn and said that “world-leading companies in textile, fashion and sportswear are standing in line” to use the product.